Of Time Machine and TARDIS
by Sheryl Lockholmes
Summary: The Fourth Doctor, on a lark, takes the Time Traveller on a little trip. But the Traveller takes back more than the Doctor had planned. Later as the Eleventh with Amy at his side he must put things right or risk ripping the universe apart.


Note from the author: First off thank you for taking the time to read my little fiction, the characters mentioned thus far are property of the BBC and the Wells estate. This is chapter one and I hope to updated soon.

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><p>The math was wrong, that was the only explanation. I know there is a way, if only I knew how to put these thoughts into practice. The tools I now work with are in no way acceptable, they just can't adapt to the theory of time travel. I stepped back to look in disgust at the chalkboard covered in numbers and sighed. Mr. Hillyer stood in the doorway of the empty classroom I had commandeered for my purpose.<p>

'Look at it,' I asked of him 'I know I am close, but I can't get the pieces to fall into place.'

'I must apologies, my friend, this' he gestured to the chalkboard 'makes no sense to me.'

I sighed, and he smiled kindly at me.

'It's getting rather late.' Hillyer said as he checked his pocket watch. 'Join me for a late supper and put this problem out of your head for a time.'

'Late, early, past, present, future, time! These constraints rule over the minds of men, that is why I am here!' I clapped him on the shoulder, 'And that is why I am staying, I'll lock up once I find somewhere to leave off for the night.'

Defeated yet loyal Hillyer simply nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

It must have been several hours later that a curious thing drew my attention away from my frustrating work. The chalk dust that had collected on the floor began to sweep and swirl as if caught in a draft, but I had not opened any windows and the door was till firmly closed. The draft increased and I followed it back to its point of origin, which raised only more questions since it was emanating from a storage cupboard. I had placed my hand on the handle to unmask this oddity when a most unusual groaning and wheezing sound joined the strange wind, like the groan of stressed metal. A fear of the unknown filled my heart as a brilliant light burst out from under the door. I shielded my eyes as I swung open the door and caught a glimpse at the most spectacular and impossible sight.

Filling almost the entire massive storage cupboard was a peculiar blue box, which was impossible since there had been nothing but neat shelves filled with supplies for the classroom only a few hours ago when I had retrieved my chalk. It was the most brilliant shade of dark blue and had a lit sign across the top, which read 'Police Public Call Box' just above the two sets of six frosted glass window in what appeared to be a pair of doors. On the left door there was a posted sign reading 'Police Telephone FREE for use of Public, Advice & Assistance Obtainable Immediately, Officers & Cars Respond to all Calls, PULL TO OPEN'.

I raised my hand to touch this blue box when with no warning the door flew open and a man stuck him head out. I gave a cry in shock and backed up, as impossible as this thing was it hadn't occurred to me that there would be a man inside it. This strange man stepped out and gave me quite a toothy grin, his dark curly hair pluming out from under his broad brimmed felt hat. As he stepped clear of his blue box I noted the ridiculously long scarf that dragged along the ground behind him.

'Who are you?' I asked as soon as my senses returned to me. 'And how on earth did you end up in there?' I pointed to the cupboard.

He closed and locked the door to his blue box before turning back to me and answering 'I am the Doctor,' he looked past me at my scribbling on the chalkboard and seemed to forget I was there at all ', well that's not right.

'Wait just a moment!' I tried to engage him as he walked past me, my mind brimming with questions.

'Your math's wrong, here,' he picked up and eraser and a stick of chalk and went about removing my hard work and putting in symbols and numbers which held no meaning for me. ' Now that is more like it.'

'Where did you come from? How did you get in here? What is that box? Why does it say police on it? You said you are a doctor, why does your… whatever that is have police on it?' These questions streamed out of me and seemed to go completely unnoticed by the man who had called himself the Doctor.

'Funny though, I didn't think anyone would be working on time travel this early. Tell me, what year is it?' he asked finally looking back to me.

'What year is it? How can you not know what year it is?' I asked a little more curtly than I had intended.

He just smiled at me and said simply, 'I've seen a lot of them, and I get them mixed up sometimes.'

'1889, what do you mean by mixed up?'

'1889,' he repeated ' no. It's too early.' He put the eraser to the board and when about destroying the whole of my evenings works.

At this I rushed forward and grabbed his hand, which wielded the eraser. 'You can't do that! This is my work, my life!'

He paused and considered me for a time before saying 'Time travel is dangerous, even with your math being wrong you are alarmingly close. Humans aren't meant to have this kind of knowledge, not yet.'

'You speak like you know the course of history.' I took the eraser from his hand and poked him in the chest lightly with my chalk. 'You seem real enough yet you also speak of humans as if you live apart from us.' I folded my arms across my chest. 'Now if you would be so kind as to enlighten me as to why and how this is I would be most grateful.'

'You must be a man of science to still be asking questions in spite of your human instinct to run from the unknown.' He sat the chalk down and wiped his hands on his jacket.

'It's more human in my opinion to ask questions than to run from them.'

At this his toothy grin returned, 'Indomitable, clever, and always full of surprises. And people wonder why humans are one of my favorites in all of time and space.'

'Wait, what?' I admit at this point I was more than a little lost, and fearful that I was wasting my time talking to a madman.

'You're a professor?' he asked barreling on, ignoring me.

'I teach, yes.'

'Well so do I, in a manner of speaking.' He paused and regarded me with narrowed blue eyes. 'How would you like to know, and experience, time travel first hand.'

'And how do you purpose to do this?' I asked scarcely believing this odd man would hold the answer to my life's dream of thwarting times dominance over mankind.

'With my TARDIS, of course.' He tossed his head in the direction of the cupboard.

'A what? You mean to say that your funny blue box can travel through time?'

'TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.' He explained as he walked over and rapped on the door of the box. 'She can take you forwards or backwards, even side to side if you know how to work the controls.'

'A time machine…' I looked at the funny blue box in a new light, as mad as it may seem I found it hard to disbelieve this unusual man and his tempting offer.

'Time _and_ space actually.' He paused and leaned on his TARDIS. 'I figure one quick trip couldn't harm anything, even on the off chance you sorted out the math end of your time travel problem you'd still be unable to harness the energy it requires to actually put your theory into practice.'

I found my legs carrying me forward to the cupboard, if this was to be my only hope of knowing what lay ahead for the future of humanity I was not about to let it slip through my grasp.

He inserted his key and unlocked the door; 'The kind of power it would take for a simple time machine won't be seen on earth till sometime in the late 21st century.'

'It seems a bit small, your device.'

He just chuckled to himself and entered through the right side door, I followed in part hoping to find it was merely a box and that this man called the Doctor knew nothing of which he spoke and that my dreams are still very much obtainable.

The shock and surprise I felt upon crossing the threshold was very profound and I felt my own legs betray me, threatening to send my sprawling to the ground.

'It's, it's…' I stammered, amazed. 'It's bigger on the inside!'

'Hah ha! I never tire of hearing you people say that!' The Doctor laughed while busying himself at the expansive gleaming control console.

I quickly stepped out, not believing my own eyes, and examined the exterior of the contraption. It caused my mind actual pain to try and rationalize what I was seeing. Outside was a blue box the size of a large wardrobe, and yet inside was an enormous room filled with blinking lights, dials, and gauges. Circular in form the controls wrapped around a great cylinder in the very center that pulsed and shown with power, even more amazingly there appeared to be doors leading to even more rooms.

'Come along or I shall leave you behind.' The Doctor called from inside. I hurried back into the irrational device, closing the door behind me.

'How,' I started but the words fell away as the entire room began to shake, it was all I could do to grab onto the edge of the center console to keep my footing.

'The question Professor isn't how it's when.' The Doctor called over the growing racket. 'Why don't I show you the year 2000?'

'One hundred and eleven years into the future!' Just saying it thrilled me.

My host looked at me, eyes wide and grinning like a madman. 'A simple thing! Time is not the boss of me sir!'


End file.
